$600 Valentine’s Day roses

Big Spender: A plus-size bouquet — with a plus-size price

Want to make a big statement on Valentine’s Day? Then ditch the familiar two foot-long roses in favor of some plus-size posies. That’s what online floral provider The Ultimate Rose (link) offers with its Ultimate Extravagance package for $600. Included in the arrangement are two dozen five- to six-foot red roses — sourced from a specialty grower in Ecuador and “delivered in an enormously long, elegant black box,” the company touts — plus an extra-long glass vase. “When words cannot speak the true depths of your heart, there is no more powerful way to declare your love than with this jaw-dropping bouquet,” the company says. If that’s not enough of a super-sized gesture, Ultimate Rose also sells giant plush animals — an eight-foot panda bear runs $350.

The reality

Not every floral specialist is convinced that bigger is indeed better — or that a $600 bouquet is the only way to make a romantic statement on Feb. 14. For starters, the bigger the flower, the more water and attention it needs — lest a customer is willing to let it wilt within a few days, says Robert McLaughlin, chief executive of Organic Bouquet, another online floral provider. “It’s a great wow factor, but it’s followed by a great shock factor,” says McLaughlin, who stopped selling the larger roses a few years ago because of complaints from customers about the flowers dying too early.

Big Spender: The $600 Valentine's Day bouquet

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MarketWatch's Charles Passy joins Lunch Break to review the latest in Valentine's Day extravagance: the $600 bouquet of six foot roses from Ecuador's Andes Mountains. Photo: The Ultimate Rose.

But even if a customer is willing to take the time and make the effort — meaning adding more water and pruning the stems on a regular basis to help ensure at least a seven-day life — there’s still no saying that a big flower appeals to everyone. If you want to make a statement, says floral designer Hannah D’Ottavio of the New York-based flower service H. Bloom, “it doesn’t have to be with that tall red rose, or even a red rose or even a rose.” D’Ottavio suggests bouquets that feature other flowers — she’s big on tulips — to avoid the cliché. “It might mean something more to someone who’s gotten roses a million times,” she says. (But if you insist on roses, D’Ottavio suggests being creative with colors – she especially likes multicolored varieties, such as the Cherry Brandy rose with red, orange and yellow petals.)

Finally, there’s the issue of price: Floral experts say it’s easy to find a worthy bouquet for under $100 — for example, FTD has arrangements starting at $20 — and that even a higher-end statement need not run more than $200. To some extent, that’s not a point disputed by The Ultimate Rose folks, since they also offer bouquets for $100 or less. (And the company sells a single 4-foot rose – with its own special vase – for $80.) As for the lifespan issue, Ultimate Rose spokeswoman Alexandra Crissy says, “We find that the long stem red roses last even longer than the shorter ones if cared for correctly.” (She also notes that the company guarantees 7-day freshness on all of its products.) And if one’s concerned about the cliché of red roses, Crissy notes that the company has a separate operation, Fiesta Roses (link), that offers bicolor and multicolor roses in traditional sizes — a dozen Rainbow Roses runs $80.

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